Monday, August 11, 2014

His Untimely End

Years ago, Robin
Williams saved me many times over from my own depression.That being said, I hated Happy Days and its spawn of Satan, Mork & Mindy.I thought it
was the stupidest premise for a television show:an alien from another planet comes down and
lives among us.In Colorado, no
less.It is only too fitting that Happy Days began the long tradition of
TV shows “jumping the shark.”Literally,
Fonzie jumped over a shark in an episode, and fans claim that was the beginning
of the end for Richie Cunningham and friends.Mork & Mindy might be a
case where a show “jumped the shark” in its first episode.Adding comedian Jonathan Winters to the mix
as a baby only made the show more ridiculous.It was a popular show, Mork &
Mindy; shows you how much I know.

As a lonely, dateless
high school misfit living in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 80s, Robin Williams
saved me with his comedy, specifically, his stand-up.I had a cassette tape of performances he did at
the Copacabana in New York City and
at The Boardinghouse in San
Francisco.The collection was called Reality…What A Concept (1979), which was
a kind of signature line for Williams.When times were tough and I was feeling particularly down, I’d listen to
his routines over and over again until I knew them by heart.I was living in a trailer in my parents’
driveway, trying to be a musician and pay my way through private Catholic high
school and later, state college.When I
could not study anymore and felt as if there was no point anyway, I’d pop on
Williams and laugh until the tears came.I’d still be laughing the next day as I walked across campus to
class.People probably thought I was
nuts, but I didn’t care.

What attracted me to
Williams’ brand of humor was the lightning fast way he improvised.People in the audience would shout words or
phrases out, and he’d volley them back with an outrageously funny line.He did voices, impersonations, full
characters, even Shakespeare.I got his
references, and they ran deeper than the comedians of my parents’
generation:Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, and
Jerry Lewis.(Lewis, I still do not get,
although my wife loves him.)I enjoyed watching
Bob Hope’s specials and the Tonight Show,
and Ladies’ Man (1961) is amusing to me, but
Robin Williams put me on the floor.I
laughed so hard, it hurt.

Later, I realized what
a talented guy he was, having attended Juilliard, the performing arts
conservatory in New York City.His
acting sometimes had him playing versions of the stand-up characters he created:the Russian in Moscow on the Hudson (1984), or the gay nightclub owner in The Birdcage (1996).However, he excelled in numerous other roles
where pure acting chops were required.My favorites:The World According To Garp (1982), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), Awakenings (1990), What Dreams May Come (1998), and most especially, his cameo in Hamlet (1996).When I looked up his full history, I could
not believe how many films Williams has done.So many great moments in American cinema.Some of them he might have done just for the
money, but he was never boring on screen.He brought something to every character and left an indelible mark on
the viewer, at least on this viewer.

I also enjoyed his
other stand-up concert films over the years, although for sheer, coked-up exuberance,
nothing beats that long ago cassette tape now lost to history and a hundred
different moves through a series of apartments.

Artists create a world
that offers respite from the all too painful and tragic real world.They take us outside of ourselves, and in
their characters, their music, their sheer being, we see the world differently
and their art makes our lives more livable, more bearable.Unfortunately, Robin Williams had nobody to
do this for him in the end.Suicide is
the bravest cowardly act one could commit.Brave, because it takes courage to force a life to its conclusion;
cowardly because one quits before the game is done.But it is not for us to judge.

If I could have sent a
message to Williams, it would be this snippet of dialogue from Awakenings.In it, Leonard Lowe, played memorably by Robert
De Niro, tells Williams’ character, Dr. Sayer, why it is important for people
to realize the gift of life:

Leonard
Lowe: We've got to tell
everybody. We've got to remind them. We've got to remind them how good it is.

Dr.
Sayer: How good what is,
Leonard?

Leonard
Lowe: Read the newspaper.
What does it say? All bad. It's all bad. People have forgotten what life is all
about. They've forgotten what it is to be alive. They need to be reminded. They
need to be reminded of what they have and what they can lose. What I feel is
the joy of life, the gift of life, the freedom of life, the wonderment of life!

Certainly, the light
of this life is a little dimmer tonight, and it will take time before we will laugh
again.Goodbye, Robin, and Godspeed.